When you think about working with influencers, you might picture it costing tens of thousands of dollars each month, if not more. Although some companies do spend that much on influencer marketing, that doesn’t have to be the case. So how much does influencer marketing cost?
Influencer marketing can be right-sized to fit your budget, you just have to understand the basic factors that will contribute to your influencer costs.
So, what are those key factors?
- The size of the influencers you want to work with
- How you are managing the outreach to the influencers and the relationships with them
- Additional software or systems to support your influencer marketing
- What Would Influencer Marketing Cost For You?
Influencer Marketing Cost Factor #1: Size of Influencers
Unfortunately, there is no universal price when it comes to paying an influencer to advertise your brand.
However, there are some general guidelines. For instance, most often the larger the influencers you work with, the more you’ll pay to work with them. There are other factors that might affect how much an influencer charges as well, such as their engagement rate and proof of sales.
When it comes down to dollar amount, Tinuiti found that this is the general price for partnering with influencers on different digital marketing platforms:
- Facebook influencer pricing: $25 per 1000 followers
- Instagram Influencer pricing: $10 per 1000 followers
- Snapchat Influencer pricing: $10 per 1000 followers
- YouTube Influencer pricing: $20 per 1000 followers
- Kim K charges up to $500,000 for an Instagram photo
Additional Factors When Paying Influencers
These are only generalized starting points though. You might adjust what you’re offering depending on their engagement rate, your campaign budget and length, the cost of your product, and other specifics that can be ironed out.
So, let’s say you’re looking to partner with an outdoor blogger with 25,000 followers and a nice engagement rate. You could expect to pay $250 for a single post. But, you offer them $100 in free product and commit to doing a longer, three-post campaign with them. You might be able to negotiate to $200 per post, for a three-post agreement.
Some influencers will already have their prices set. Others will want to hear what you offer them first. Most of the time, prices are negotiable.
Influencer Marketing Cost Factor #2: Influencer Marketing Management
So, one factor you’ll have to consider is what you’re paying the influencers themselves.
The next factor is what you’re paying the person who manages the influencer campaigns and relationships.
At a high-level, here is what running an influencer marketing campaign looks like at Elevate and what it might look like for your business:
- Define your target audience(s).
- Set a budget and goals for working with influencers.
- Find the right influencers that represent your brand well and have your target audience.
- Reach out personally to this select group of influencers.
- Come up with a creative campaign that will stand out to their audience.
- Analyze the effectiveness of the campaign.
- Take what you’ve learned and grow.
If you’d like to learn more about the basics of influencer marketing, click here to read our blog: What is Influencer Marketing?
Since this process includes finding the right influencers, reaching out, establishing relationships, and managing the campaign, it takes time and knowledge.
Here’s where the cost comes in; you’ll be paying someone to execute influencer marketing campaigns.
This might be a member of your staff who is knowledgeable in the field of digital marketing and influencer marketing. Even so, you might figure out what part of their job is influencer marketing and associate part of their salary with your influencer spend.
How Much Does an Influencer Marketing Specialist or Influencer Marketing Agency Cost?
You might also partner with an influencer marketing specialist like Katie at Elevate, to help you come up with creative campaigns and work with influencers. At Elevate, we can handle the management of all aspects of your influencer marketing campaigns or find a way to support the staff you already have. Depending on the scale of your campaign, packages with Elevate generally start at $1,000 per month and up.
Other businesses work with larger influencer marketing and public relations agencies. Working with these types of agencies, you might find that prices range anywhere from $1,000/month to $20,000/month and up.
Influencer Marketing Cost Factor #3: Supporting Software and Systems
When you get into your influencer marketing campaign, you might find that you need additional software or systems to support you.
One option you might explore are influencer marketing platforms. These platforms provide you with a way to manage your influencer marketing campaigns, and can vary widely in price depending on the solution you choose. At Elevate, we’ve seen platforms that start at $50, others that start at $300, and others that start at $1,000+.
The capabilities of these platforms widely vary, and if you want to discuss our thoughts on using influencer marketing platforms, we’d be happy to tell you what we think.
Beyond influencer marketing platforms, you might find you want some of these options:
- Additional affiliate marketing capabilities for your digital storefront (such as a program that manages many coupon codes and tracks their sales)
- A Link-in-Profile tool to make the most of your Instagram profile
- Dropbox or Google Drive account to store influencer assets
What would influencer marketing cost for you?
If you want to learn more about influencer marketing, click here to schedule a free consultation with me, Katie McNamee, Founder of Elevate Online. I’d be happy to learn more about your needs and share an estimate of what it might cost for your business to kickstart your influencer marketing.